The process is often repeated multiple times, in different stills, to get as much of the impurities out as possible while preserving a desired flavor from the esters, acids and other desired flavorings. The goal of this process is to slowly churn a low-proof mash (rarely over 20 proof) to at least 130 proof.

The spirit is transferred to a holding container for aging or flavoring.

Next, manufacturers choose from some or all of the filtration methods described in part 1 of our blog!

Afterwards, spirits from different batches are married together to create the brand’s desired flavor.

The product is watered down to get the proofage correct. The exception to this is known as “Cask Strength” spirits.

The spirit is then bottled and shipped out.

Why Distillation is Dangerous and How Alcohol Companies Avoid Murder

The biggest reason why distillation is dangerous is Methanol.

Methanol is a by-product of forming alcohol with the fibrous pectin in foods during the distillation process. Some of it is also carried in through the air as well. While in fermentation, due to the low amount of Methanol in the final product this is almost rarely ever an issue. In Distillation, however, all of the methanol from all of your batches is concentrated to a very small region of the drink. For example, if you are doing a 100 gallon batch of a mash, and all of the Methanol is getting concentrated into under 10 gallons of alcohol, people start dying.

Moreover, because Methanol weighs more than Ethanol, it can also get concentrated in a very small portion of the beverage. This means that even if you don’t use a lot of mash (say just 10 liters which is likely not even enough to make a bottle of alcohol), drinking the wrong 5 ml of the product not only has the possibility to permanently blind you, but it can also kill you as well.

The way distillers avoid this is usually by separating the Methanol from the ethanol during the distillation process. Methanol has a lower boiling point than Ethanol, so many manufacturers can avoid Methanol poisoning by simply boiling it away at 65 degrees celsius and disposing the liquid that comes out.

While not as prominent in todays world due to tougher manufacturing standards, lead poisoning and other heavy metal poisoning is still a danger when using stills.

How Flavor is added to Distilled Products

Ethanol is basically flavorless, so how do different Whiskey all have distinct, complicated and wonderful flavors that we know in alcohol?

We will talk more about flavors and how alcohol companies can manipulate the use of wood, sugar content, spices, water and chemicals to create an infinite assortment of different flavor profiles in part 3 of What is Alcohol.

In order to create modern day ethanol (the ingredient that gets us drunk in alcohol), a process known as fermentation is always invoked.

The formula for alcohol is VERY roughly as follows:

Sugar + Reagent (Yeast)—> Alcohol + CO2

By changing the sugar and catalyst it is possible to produce other types of alcohol other than ethanol. One example is methanol which is in most alcohol as well and comes from the fibers of fruit like grapes and is eaten by bacteria known as methanogens instead of yeast! For humans, this is very toxic as it turns into formaldehyde in the human body. However, for rats, they are able to survive more methanol than ethanol before dying!

Another is Xylitol which changes this sugar by hydrogenating the sugar of wood before adding yeast! This sugar is commonly seen in gums to replace sugar and has many reported teeth benefits!

Understanding the Ingredients

In order to understand distillation you first need to understand how consumer made alcohol is made. The three necessary ingredients for this are sugar, yeast and time.

Sugars are a great storage unit of energy that nature needs to work. They are naturally occurring in all plants and fruits through a process known as photosynthesis. Everything needs energy to survive. While humans might have poop as our waste ingredient, some enzymes survive by eating sugar and pooping alcohol and carbon dioxide! These enzymes are known as yeast.

Yeast are small little bacteria that exist naturally in the air. They contain an enzyme known as zymase which is the enzyme needed to create alcohol! To further understand how common alcohol, unless you somehow killed off all the bacteria in the air, it would be absolutely impossible to stop alcohol production from occurring.

As a result, many alcohols are made naturally with very little lab work! Two great examples of this occurring is barley and grapes.

In the case of grapes, the skin typically has carried over yeast from a period of time of being exposed to nature. These little bacterias are airborne and then latch onto the skin of the grape. So wine makers typically stomp on the wine in order to break down the skin and merge it with the juice of the grape so that it ferments more evenly and the bacteria grows stronger than ever. Even without the mashing process, they are literally eating the skin of the grape and pooping out alcohol slowly—just at a very small scale and at a slower time frame!

In the case of barley, the process just a little more complicated! Water is added to the grains to germinate the barley, then it is quickly right when the grain generates the highest concentration of enzymes. This process is known as malting.

The reason malting is a desired process in alcohol production is because malting barley cultivates a ton of enzymes known as amylase. Amylase is an enzyme that breaks down carbohydrates and turns it into sugar. This enzyme breaks down the starches into sugars and attracts yeast cells from all over to feed on the sugars of the barley.

While these are both naturally occurring ways of making alcohol, don’t mistake natures powerful force for lack of innovation! If you don’t want to make a malted barley whiskey or a red wine distilled beverage, factories in universities across the country have cultivated thousands upon thousands fantastic strains of unique yeast that brewers are able to add in separately. This is why you can find lots of amazing spirits without malted barley!

How Fermentation Works

Once you have your ingredients ready, you need to start the process of fermentation. This is generally as simple as putting these two ingredients together and throwing them in a vat for a few weeks!

However, brewers and winemakers are constantly aware of a multitude of different variables which can and will change the end product!

Each of these provide a different flavor profile, with oak barrels having very unique flavor complexities in each one! However, this is not always desired in an attempt to get a consistent product! Other woods might be very hard to work with or might not provide a flavor that is very good! However, many people have experimented with many types of containers and woods! Some of them create really unique and wondrous flavors!

Is the vat going to be open or closed?

An open vat adds for a unique complexity to the fermented beverage and allows for easier maintenance. A closed vat will help control outside elements and is not at risk of spoilage.

What temperature is it fermenting at?

If it’s too hot or cold the yeast won’t work activate properly. If it’s way too hot, a lot of it will evaporate before becoming alcohol and you won’t have any product left to sell!

Do you want want the product to be bubbly?

If so you will have to do a secondary fermentation and wait for weeks to months so that the CO2 won’t escape the new product. Do you want to add additional flavors to your beer like fruit? Then you might even need to do a third fermentation!

How long to ferment?

The longer you ferment the less yeast you have to use! However, this has diminishing results over time and may just take space. After a long enough period of time, the yeast will die from a lack of sugar. If you wait too long, the flavor of the non-alcohol ingredients can also disappear or rot!

Getting Rid Of Impurities

To be clear, this step isn’t always necessary and getting it right is one of the most complicated and difficult parts about fermented beverages. In wine, it's a constantly subject with tons of manpower going into the research of what is the best way of getting rid of impurities while also preserving or improving taste.

Without the filtration process, you may see a lot of gunk that you may see in the bottom of many wine bottles or beer bottles. Moreover, you may sometimes purchase wine that still has a bit bubbles because they didn’t remove all of the yeast cells!

Suspension Method:

The suspension method is where a substance known as fining ingredient are added to ingredients. These ingredients bind to the chemicals that aren’t liquid and make them big! The way they do this is because opposites attract at the molecular level. For example, by using a negatively charged agent like Bentonite, or Silicon Dioxide, you will attract the positively charged substances (typically proteins).

Moreover, yeast, while alive has a strong negative charge. By using a positively charged ion like isinglass, albumen you will get rid of unwanted yeast that may spoil the beverage.

Enzymatic Method:

To get rid of excess wine skin or other fibrous materials, pectinase is sometimes added. Other enzymes can be used to make a similar effect if unwanted complex particle enters the product.

Centrifuge Method:

A centrifuge is occasionally used to separate the solids. A centrifuge works by using the forces gravity obtained by spinning a compound at a very high speed, in turn separating things by there specific weight. This will typically force all the solids to one layer, and all the liquid can be captured through a filter.

I'm taking part in a bartending competition here in Lancaster on June 17th and would love your input on a drink I have designed for the competition. I'm sorry this request is last minute, as I need to submit my ingredient list by tomorrow Wednesday June 6th. If you have time, I would love any suggestions. I'm satisfied with the drink, but still feel it needs work.

I've been using the hot process in practice, but plan on using the cold process for competition.

Through a series of questions, I introduced him to a checklist that competition drinks need to have. I told him that if he followed all of these principles, he has a very good chance of winning. A lot of competitive bartending is knowing what to worry about.

1) UNIQUE VISUAL APPEAL

Every drink that went "viral" from a mojito, to a cosmo, to an aviation, has had something visual that sets it apart from other drinks. It can be the copper mug of a Moscow mule, shredded and layered mint on top of an egg white like in this drink:

A cocktail has to be simple for another bartender to recreate. Clear directions, easily sourced ingredients, and simple processes are key here. Complex cocktails usually don't win, because they are hard to reproduce.

3) INTRIGUING STORY

A cocktail needs a story, something significant about what it is, where it's made, something unique about it that inspired you. For example, Faber is made in Quakertown, and you can say that Quakertown has an Amish market. You wanted to incorporate the spirit of Quakertown into the cocktail by using a traditional shrub.

4) CONNECTION TO THE BRAND

Keep in mind that competitions don't exist in a vacuum. They are sponsored by brands, and you can show that you care and understand the brand by using their products and avoiding competing brands for your recipe. Think of the liquor brands like the great houses from Game of Thrones. You wouldn't walk into a Stark sponsored joust with a Lannister lance. If you don't like the brand for whatever reason, I would skip that particular competition. Is your drinks connection to the brand negative (competing product), neutral (using only the products listed), or positive (utilizing another spirit or cordial the aligned with that particular brand, or telling a story that dovetails with the brand's values).

5) KEEP THE JUDGES IN MIND

Is this going to be a competition that's judged by a crowd, by a panel, or both? In the case of crowds, I would err on the side of caution when using astringency. If a cocktail is too bitter or sour for your audience, or if they're not used to that particular source of astringency, it can reflect poorly on your score. The judge might love Fernet Branca, but the crowd may be unfamiliar with it.

RESULTS

The event titled Fill Up My Cup was held June 16 in Lancaster, PA, and included six bartenders from great Lancaster restaurants and country clubs. My cocktail, The Sweet and Sour Mule, won the majority vote of over 150 participants. The drink essentially is a Jamaican mule with a raspberry shrub.

I just wanted to thank you for your quick response and helpful suggestions! I did change the name to The Sweet and Sour Mule - which appealed to the local crowd, as sweet-n-sour foods are quite popular here. Additionally, Bartending Mastery's Chapter 17 section, Fundamental of Drink Design, proved quite helpful in directing me as I developed my first cocktail.

Finally, I cannot wait to return to Aqua Vitae Institute to complete my exams; I hope to finish by the end of July. I been bartending seven days a week for a stretch - but I can't complain, as it rarely feels like work!

Since returning to bartending two years ago, I have been interested in entering competitions. So when this local competition presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity. I'm still a little in shock over the win, though I really believed in myself and this cocktail. The experience has been amazing, allowing me a chance to interact with other industry folks and cocktail enthusiasts. The award, a trip to Las Vegas, isn't bad either!

Take a sneak peak into Flair Bartending at Aqua Vitae Institute! Here you will meet our flair instructor, the reasons we offer flair, and a few of the cool/amazing tricks you will learn in our main class!

STUDENTS FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE WITH DIFFERENT SCHEDULING NEEDS TAKE BARTENDING CLASSES

In the last 6 months, we've had students from other countries, bar owners, retiring detectives, Ivy League double majors, yoga teachers, college students working three jobs to help pay for school, and everyone in between.

Frequently, we run into situations where the regular 1-5 or 6-10 bartending class just doesn't work for that particular student. We've even had students who could only come in on one specific day, like a Tuesday, and had to complete the program that way.

If you've ever worked in a very competitive industry, like finance or restaurants, you might know what it's like to work so many hours and feel like it's a real challenge to learn something new, and bring more opportunity into your life. At Aqua Vitae it is so so important to us that everyone who wants to change their life by learning to bartender is able to, regardless of how tough their scheduling situation first appears, and believe me, we've certainly had some challenges.

Here are three ways to make up a class:

WATCH A VIDEO OF THE CLASS IN OUR LIBRARY

The library and wine tasting room at Aqua Vitae is kept quiet on purpose. We never blast music here. It is meant as a quiet place for students to study and hone their skills, and if a student is attending a class they've already had, they can watch a video of a class they need to make up right in the library while other students are getting a lecture.

After that, they'll go over the lesson briefly with the instructor while the other students take their break, and they'll demonstrate that they understood the knowledge and drinks involved. And then they'll practice in teams with other students who have had the lesson they were making up, and integrate with the rest of the class.

SCHEDULE A PRIVATE MAKE UP SESSION ON FRIDAYS DURING INSTRUCTOR OFFICE HOURS

Instructor office hours are on Friday from 12pm until 3pm, and students can request a time to talk to their instructor about job placement, work on specific skills like stirring, advanced mixology, ingredient creation etc., but the most common use of office hours is to make up any class the student has missed while they are taking the program. The student will have a one on one class with the instructor, and then they will demonstrate the knowledge they've learned.

GO TO OUR SCHEDULE AND SEE WHEN THE CLASS IS BEING OFFERED AGAIN

Click here to visit our Aqua Vitae schedule. Day Classes are from 1pm-5pm, and Evening Classes are from 6pm-10pm. The school opens at 10am for practice. Saturday classes are from 10am-2pm, and from 2pm-6pm. Students can always come in, once they're enrolled into the school, and attend any class on the schedule.

A Brief History of Maraschino Cherries and our Favorite Preserved Cherries

A Short History of These Cherries

For hundreds of years, the only notable candied cherries were made by Croatia and there monopoly of Marasca Cherry Trees. Due to their expense, they were considered a luxury good reserved for the wealthy. However, they were also extremely popular. American counterfeiters from all over came trying to cash in on this industry by using coal tar “aniline”, “full of sugar”, and almond flavoring. They very rarely had any quality control, but would just add more chemicals in order to replicate their richer European competitors. In 1912, the FDA issued Food Inspection Decision 141, an order stating that Maraschino Cherries had to be made from Marasca cherries and preserved in a Marasca syrup, to prevent the quality.

But it didn’t. And in 1939 a Maraschino cherry was any canned cherry that was “dyed red, impregnated with sugar and flavored with oil of bitter almonds or a similar flavor.”

The counterfeits were wildly successful and whole industries were created to imitate the Marasca cherries. However, there were serious issues. The cherries weren’t as firm. They also didn't preserve shape or look consistent. And of course, the production of cherries weren’t codified as well as it could be.

To improve on the concerns of consumers eating the counterfeits, Ernest Wiegand, a professor in Oregon University, devoted his life in order to make the perfect Maraschino cherry. In 1925 when Ernest Wiegand found a way of keeping firm cherries while making the candied cherries affordable for everyone.

This new version of a Maraschino cherry process started with a Rainier or another yellow tinted cherry. Then those cherries were traditionally brined for forty-five days in a solution of preservatives and would lose most of their red coloring becoming yellow. The point of the brining process was so that they could maintain their texture for years.

While this brining process is the traditional way that gave rise to the popularity of Maraschino cherries, there has been some modernization to them as well. In 1969, a paper was released about the merits of using Sulfur Dioxide as a preservative due to its antimicrobial properties. This process, mixed with calcium salts, bleached cherries white, took days instead of weeks, and created a more consistent product.

Some Preserved Cherries on the Market That We Love:

1. Luxardo Maraschino Cherries

Bartenders praise Luxardo Cherries, but if you asked a hundred bartenders what makes Luxardo Cherries special, most would say they have no idea, just that they are good and a standard of quality.

Luxardo Maraschino cherries are one of the oldest and most brands of preserved cherries on the market today. During World War 2, Croatia was devastated by Nazis and the Luxardo family took a sapling seed in order to keep these trees in Italy. For hundreds of years, they’ve continued to make some of the most delicious Maraschino cherries, and for many, will be the only way to revisit one the greatest delicacies of the late 19th and early 20th century.

The key difference between Luxardo Maraschino Cherries and everyone else is that their brand focuses on having a consistently firm “crunchy” texture that is unique to everything else on the market. This is due to the fact they are picked as soon as they are ripened, and then quickly candied. After the candying process, they are coated in Maraschino syrup, a syrup which is typically darker and more viscous than most of what is out there on the market, and packaged into a jar. As a result of this production method, these cherries have a ton of crunch! They’re also very expensive with each cherry retailing for around 40 cents a piece.

It doesn't help that we go through a jar of these every week either!

2. Tillen Farm Bada Bing Cherries

Tillen Farm Bada Bing cherries are the perfect cherry for your friend who is on a diet and one of our go to recommendations for those who want to add a little bit of sweetness without breaking their bank of calories. These cherries are a little bit sweet, but not super sweet. They have no artificial dyes and are pitted with the stem on. These amazing cherries have a fresh taste, aren't expensive, and last for around a month. While they are low in sugar, they also still have a huge flavor behind them.

3. Amarena Fabbri Cherries

Amarena cherries are an amazing alternative to the more expensive Maraschino. They are a little less sweet and less crispy than their Maraschino counterparts, but they are very unique in their own right. These cherries are delicious and the brands Toschi and Fabbri can be found for half the price of their Luxardo counterparts while still having a similar flavor.

BARTENDING IN THE AGE OF DONALD TRUMP

by Ori Geshury

President Donald Trump is everywhere these days and it’s not hard to see why. From the unprecedented campaign, to the most vigorous first weeks of an American Presidency in recent memory, there’s certainly a lot of change going on. And whether you support him and his policies, disagree completely with everything he stands for and are a safety pin wearing member of the resistance, consider him to be a persuasive genius, or remarkably crass and dangerously ignorant, one this is absolutely certain: You are talking about him and there are huge implications happening across the world--especially for bartenders or people who wish to be bartenders.

We have people at our school that voted and who didn’t vote, who supported Clinton and supported Trump. I’m not writing to voice an opinion on whether what’s happening is good or bad from a political standpoint, I’m a bartender and I don’t feel qualified to do so. However, I do want to look at the way Donald Trump is impacting bartending, future job prospects, and how education is affected.

The first part of this article is going to focus on the current dangers you should be aware of that are happening to jobs, bartending or not. Keep in mind that Donald Trump is not completely responsible for all these factors, they are the result of economic and political trends that have been boiling under the surface for decades. If reading all of these makes you feel like the walls are closing in, and there is some serious trouble ahead, you’re not alone. That’s the sentiment shared by the many prospective students we meet and talk to every single day. I want to share them, not to scare you, but to give you an idea of that challenges that are out there so you can face them head on, and develop a plan to overcome them.

The second part of this article is going to focus on how for so many people, Bartending, and a career in beverage, can be a solution that seems tailor made for problems we seem to all be experiencing.

PART ONE: THE DANGERS OF DONALD TRUMP

IT WILL GET MORE EXPENSIVE TO LIVE: EVERYTHING FROM GROCERIES, TO ELECTRONICS, TO THE COST OF FOOD WILL INCREASE IF FOREIGN GOODS ARE TAXED

Regardless of whether or not you support Trump’s threats to tax Mexican and Chinese products, it’s important to realize that it can greatly impact the purchasing power of the American consumer for years. This is because our economy is so intertwined with other countries, that it’s impossible that taxes on their goods will not raise the cost of living for all Americans-at least in the short term.

IT IS MORE LIKELY THAN EVER BEFORE THAT YOU WILL LOSE YOUR LOW SKILLED JOB TO A COMPUTER

Globalization and computerization are threatening more entry level jobs than at any time in American history since the 1970s when we saw the gradual erosion of our manufacturing. I’ve never seen so many articles on so many different news sources, that all say the same thing: The job market is going to drastically change, and the technology for this to happen is already available.

Many of our students drive for Uber and Lyft, and we get our fair share of truck drivers as well, and they all are worried about driverless cars, because the technology is already there for safer, more cost effective transportation. Columbia Professor Hod Lipson has written an amazing book on the subject and his interview with Tucker Carlson is worth a watch.

In addition to that are the more sophisticated robots used in manufacturing, McKinsey and Company, whom we had the pleasure of hosting an event for, even did some fascinating work explaining that up to 59% of manufacturing work is vulnerable to automation over the next ten years. You can watch a fascinating PBS piece on this here.

And the more vulnerable ones are the one’s lowest on the totem pole. This week we enrolled two students that all worked in the service industry, one from McDonald’s and one from Chili’s. And their jobs are threatened by policies that McDonald’s and Chili’s have introduced in response to raising the minimum wage.

In light of these findings, it shouldn’t be surprising to read the results of an Oxford study that almost half of US jobs are vulnerable to computerized automation.

TRADITIONAL EDUCATION AFTER HIGH SCHOOL HAS NEVER BEEN MORE EXPENSIVE

I’m 33, and of all the changes that have happened in my lifetime, I really can’t think of any as dramatic as how the cost of college is really creating different classes in our society. It’s getting more and more expensive relative to the rate of inflation and shows no signs of slowing down. When I was a kid my mom was able to pay for my private school and my dad’s grad school, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in cash without taking out any loans. We were new to this country and were unable to get credit. When I was 18, going to Drexel was pricey, but manageable with loans and working retail and summer jobs.

It’s so different now. I see single mothers stagnate and take extra classes at community college because completing their Bachelor’s degree seems so out of reach. I talk to students from schools that were traditionally affordable, like Temple and Drexel where the plurality of our students come from, and see people in their early 20s well into six figures of debt. A famous Bloomberg report shows just how high college tuitions have grown in the since 1978, 1225%!!!

UNLIKE OBAMA, TRUMP IS WILL REDUCE THE GOVERNMENT’S ABILITY TO SUPPORT YOU IF YOU LOSE YOUR JOB, HAVE TO PAY FOR SCHOOL, OR GET SICK

We don’t need to look at Trump’s zeal to repeal and replace Obamacare or his threats to defund PBS to know that conservatives traditionally like smaller government, and less support for health care, educational infrastructure, and social services. The truth is that all Republican administrations invest less in financial, educational, and social support than Democratic ones. These differences are part and parcel of the lines of contention between the two parties.

I’m mentioning this because of how it relates to my last point. Under a Republican Administration, if you lose your job or get hurt, you will have less support from the state to help you succeed. With the rise of automation, and the cost of higher education, this can create a perfect storm that wrecks our notions of economic and social mobility for Americans entering the workforce.

PART II: IS ALCOHOL A SOLUTION? HOW BARTENDING CREATES SUCCESS STORIES

While a chemist would certainly agree that alcohol is a solution, I want to explain what I mean

THERE IS GOOD MONEY IN BARTENDING

It’s relatively easy in a major city to be able to make $20-30 an hour as a bartender. We know dozens of graduates from Aqua Vitae that make over 80k a year. Jim Meehan talks about this in his groundbreaking presentation about the rise of the career craft cocktail bartender and the importance of health. He says that bartenders should worry about health because many of them finish college and find that their income opportunities are greater for doing a job they love, than a soulless corporate job their degrees have qualified them for. He cites a 60k a year figure in New York City, which I would say is even conservative for that area.

I remember a student of ours in the 90s who worked at the Pyramid Club specifically to get access to the lawyers and firms she wanted to apply for upon finishing law school. My mom was able to support the family by giving her business cards away at the convention center and decorating people’s houses. Since then, we’ve had hundreds of personal trainers, hairdressers, musicians, actors, dancers, writers etc. leverage their ability to bartend into developing and maintaining business connections and even romantic relationships.

One topic that isn’t explored enough is how positive reinforcement (getting a higher tip) for charisma, great technique, and persuasion can change someone’s ability to deal with people over months and years. When I was writing the bar psychology portion of the textbook and researching authors like Cialdini, and the famous Cornell restaurant study where a woman wearing a flower in her hair made 17% more tips, and teaching them to our students, I found that bartenders who had been in the industry for a year or so did most of these things automatically.

It’s not hard to see why, people can lie and smile and laugh, but if they come to see you and tip you well it’s a clear sign of appreciation that cannot be faked. This allows bartenders to more accurately judge how their attitudes and habits affect other people than the rest of us, which give them an advantage in every other area of their life.

There’s something else going on here too. In the movie Crazy Stupid Love, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carrell do most of their dating in one swanky bar. Watch the clip and imagine you are a bartender in a bar like this. In a year you’d see not just hundreds but thousands of first dates, business meetings, interactions between human beings that go well and go poorly.

What do you think would happen to your ability to form relationships, and nail an interview for any job you wanted?

(Side note: The Old Fashioned scene in Crazy Stupid Love is one of the few examples of cocktails in movies that really works.)

BARTENDING PROVIDES THE OPPORTUNITY TO ADVANCE YOUR CAREER

If you’ve ever seen the movie Cocktail you’ve got a pretty good idea of how bartending worked in the 90s and early 00s. While there were some great bartenders out there, and David Wondrich was writing for esquire as a voice in the wilderness very early on, there just wasn’t too much innovation going on. The best bartenders lifted weights, flipped bottles, worked fast, and eventually started their own bars. Luis Bermudez, our old head instructor and former Head Bartender at Cuba Libre, exemplifies the absolute pinnacle of success here. He got into bartending after the Navy, won best Bartender in Philadelphia in a competition at the legendary 90s nightclub/palace Egypt, started a bar with Diego from top 40 radio station Q102, became a firefighter, and now owns properties all over Philadelphia, Miami, and Costa Rica.

But the differences now are incredible. Never before have there been so many opportunities for bartenders to advance, bar management, brand ambassadorship, competitions, lectures, writing reporters on HARO. The options for bartenders who want to advance without shelling our half a million dollars and risking everything to open a bar are tremendous.

Luciano Spensierato, who took classes with us when he came over from Italy, and whom we helped get a job at Xfinity Live when they did job fairs before they opened, and currently helms the exceptional bar program at Gran Caffe L’Aquila, is an example of how a bartender can increase his standing. Jeff Bowell, who moved to Las Vegas, helped open Revel in Atlantic City, and now NOTO in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, is another good example.

BARTENDERS CANNOT BE REPLACED OR OUTSOURCED, BECAUSE PEOPLE DON’T GO TO BARS TO DRINK ALCOHOL

I recently read a great article by sfgate on why people go to bars. San Francisco is considered a first tier city in the bar and restaurant industry, with its higher income residents, emphasis on locally sourcing fresh ingredients, and care in presentation, you’d think the experience of food and drink would be at the forefront of the article, instead the author writes:

"to work, talk, cheat, chat, smoke, investigate, read, stare, eat, fight, study, use free Wi-Fi, listen to music, be the old dude at the bar, ask for directions, meet a friend, make a friend, borrow money, have fun, and sometimes because there is just nothing else to do."

This really goes to the heart of what I’m trying to explain. We can’t turn into computers, and we don’t have much control of political and economic change. But we can leverage our own humanity, build our own network of friends and allies, and create opportunities for us to make money now and later, all by embracing a job that let’s us do all of these things simultaneously: Bartending.

Because of all these reasons, a part time job or career in Bartending has never been more attractive. However, I do want to end with one more thing:

LEARNING TO BARTEND IS INCREDIBLY CHEAP

Unlike traditional education, that balloons in price year after year, you can study at Aqua Vitae Institute for under a thousand dollars. By the end of it you will feel confident enough to work behind any bar.

If you’ve gotten to the end of this article, it’s certain that you’re at least a little bit curious about how we can help you reach your goals through bartending. I really encourage you to reach out to us here!